HISTORICAL    ESSAY 


\RT    OF    BOOKBINDING 


H.    P^T>U  BOIS, 


}•:    Lll'KI:. 


NEW  YORK: 

BRADSTREET     PRESS 
1883. 


1  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1883,  by 

THE  HKADSTREET  COMPANY, 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washii.. 


£'"•: 


INDEX 


PREFACE,      -  5 

BIBLIOPBGIA,     -  7 

THE  CATENATI,  13 

OF  MOROCCO  LEATHER  BINDING,'  17 

GROLIERII  ET  AMICORUM,  21 

JACQUES  AUGUSTE  DE  THOU,  25 

OF  BOOKBINDERS,  29 

BIBLIOGRAPHY,          -  41 


255462 


PREFACE. 


Multum  legendum  est,  non  multa  ...  is  the 
precept  of  Pliny  the  Elder,  and  the  invention  of  the 
printed  book  has  made  it  invaluable  to  the  true 
and  worthy  bibliophile,  whose  aim  is  to  obtain  pos- 
session of  the  best  books  in  the  best  editions,  not  the 
bibliomaniac's  purpose  to  pile  Pelion  on  Ossa. 

Then,  as  beneath  the  dome  of  a  great  library  lies 
the  temple  of  refuge  for  the  soul  that  suggested  itself 
to  Osymandyas,  King  of  Egypt,  the  books  of  the 
bibliophile  should  not  be  artistically  as  cold  as  a 
Carnac  dolmen. 

The  history  of  the  art  of  bookbinding  is  compatible 
with  the  history  of  artistic  taste  in  every  country ;  it 
progressed  gradually  with  the  art  of  bookmaking ;  it 
flourished  with  the  Renascence  in  France ;  it  fell  in 


6  PREFACE. 

the  Revolutionary  era ;  it  is  at  its  height  in  England, 
in  France  and  in  the  United  States  at  present. 

To  the  reader  who  cares  to  make  a  study  of  it  is 
promised  pleasure  as  well  as  instruction  in  the  books 
quoted  in  the  appended  bibliography,  every  one  of 
which  has  been  consulted  for  the  present  essay. 

H.  P.  Du  B. 


BIBLIOPEGIA. 


NGELUS  ROCCHA,  whom  Morhof  accuses 
of  having  introduced  extraneous  and  unin- 
teresting matter  in  the  frequently  quoted 
"Bibliotheca  Apostolica  Vaticana "  (Rome,  1591), 
infers  from  a  passage  of  chapter  xxxi  of  Deutero- 
nomy that  the  malady  of  bibliomania  existed  in  the 
times  before  the  deluge.  It  certainly  was  nearly 
coeval  with  the  art  of  writing;  and  that  fascinating 
department  of  bibliomania,  the  art  of  bookbinding, 
with  the  art  of  making  square  books  (codices),  when 
Phillatius,  to  whom,  says  Trotzius,  the  grateful  Athe- 
nians erected  a  statue,  invented  a  process  by  which 
the  sheets  of  a  book  were  made  to  adhere  together. 
The  covers  were  originally  of  wood,  ivory  or  metal, 
with  a  view  to  solidity  only.  It  was  a  simple  process, 


8  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

and  yet  there  were  then,  as  at  present,  good, 
bad  and  indifferent  bookbinders,  for,  in  one  of  his 
letters  to  Atticus,  Cicero  requested  the  assistance 
of  two  slaves,  reputed  skilled  workmen  (lignatores 
librorum). 

At  a  time  when  the  possession  of  a  book  was  that 
of  "  a  treasure  for  aye  "  it  was  natural  that  the  art  of 
its  exterior  decoration  progressed  as  rapidly  as  the 
art  of  its  interior  decoration.  The  founder  of  the 
first  organized  monastic  community,  Saint  Pachomius 
(fourth  century),  exacted  it  in  strict  rules  for  the 
preservation  of  the  books  of  his  monastery ;  and  the 
"  Notitia  Dignitatum  Imperii "  (about  450)  mentions 
the  fact  that  certain  officers  of  the  Oriental  Empire 
carried  in  public  ceremonies  large  square  books  of  the 
Emperor's  instructions  for  the  administration  of  his 
provinces,  bound  in  red,  blue  or  yellow  leather,  and 
ornamented  with  a  gilt  or  painted  portrait  of  the 
Emperor. 

In  the  sixth  century  the  art  of  bookbinding  was 
the  art  of  goldsmiths  and  enamellers,  as  the  art  of 
bookmaking  was  the  art  of  calligraphs  and  illumin- 
ators. Seneca  had  criticized  the  luxurious  orna- 
mentation of  books ;  it  had  been  censured  by  Petrus 
Acotantus;  St.  Jerome  exclaimed,  "Your  books  are 


ART   OK    BOOKBINDING.  9 

covered  with  precious  stones,  and  Christ  died  naked 
before  the  gate  of  his  temple ;  "  but  the  exhortations 
of  profound  philosophers  and  austere  monks  availed 
little  in  the  growing  passion  for  superb  books.  Zo- 
naras,  the  Byzantian  historian,  says  in  his  "  Annals  " 
that  Belisarius  found  among  the  treasures  of  Gelimer, 
King  of  the  Vandals,  the  books  of  the  Scriptures, 
u  glittering  with  gold  and  precious  stones."  A  sim- 
ilar binding,  two  plates  of  gold  ornamented  with 
colored  stones  and  antique  cameos,  is  of  the  Greek 
Scriptures,  which  Theodelinda,  Queen  of  the  Lom- 
bards, gave,  fifty  or  sixty  years  after  the  death  of 
Belisarius,  to  that  cathedral  of  Monza  which  possesses 
the  famous  Iron  Crown,  mainly  of  gold,  but  with  a 
thin  band  of  iron,  said  to  have  been  hammered  from 
a  nail  of  the  true  cross. 

The  celebrated  copy  of  the  Pandects  of  Justinian, 
which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Laurentian  library  of 
Florence,  is  of  the  sixth  or  seventh  century.  The 
volume  is  a  folio  bound  with  wooden  boards,  covered 
with  red  velvet  and  ornamented  with  silver  corners. 
It  was  not  known  to  Dibdin,  who  says  in  the  Eighth 
Dialogue  of  his  "  Bibliographical  Decameron "  that 
there  are  no  specimens  of  binding  in  velvet  before  the 
fourteenth  century,  at  which  time  it  is  expressly 


10  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

noticed  by  Chaucer  in  the  prologue  to  the  Canter- 
bury Tales : 

"  A  twenty  bokes  clothed  in  black  and  red, 
Of  Aristotle, — " 

Astle  tells  of  a  famous  "Textus  Sancti  Cuthberti," 
written  in  the  seventh  century,  adorned  in  the  Saxon 
times  by  Bilfrith,  a  monk  of  Durham,  with  a  silver 
cover,  gilt  and  precious  stones,  described  by  Simeon 
Dunelmensis  :  "  A  booke  of  Gospelles,  garnished  and 
wrought  with  antique  worke  of  silver  and  gilte,  with 
an  image  of  the  Crucifix,  with  Mary  and  John,  poiz 
together,  cccxxij  oz." 

Several  books  bound  during  the  reign  of  Charle- 
magne, presumably  under  the  supervision  of  the 
great  Alcuin,  are  specially  noted  for  the  gorgeousness 
of  their  exterior  decorations ;  and  they  were  also 
masterpieces  of  calligraphy  in  letters  of  glittering 
gold  on  purple  vellum,  by  the  Emperor's  daughters, 
Gisela  and  Rothruda;  by  Alcuin  and  his  pupils  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  book  of  Gospels  which  Ada, 
sister  of  Charlemagne,  gave  to  the  abbey  of  Saint 
Maximin  of  Treves  was  studded  with  gems  encircling 
an  agate  five  inches  in  width  and  four  in  length,  with 
an  engraved  representation  of  Ada,  the  Emperor,  and 


ART  OF   BOOKBINDING.  I  I 

his  two  sons.  That  monument  of  the  bibliogestic 
art  of  the  eighth  century,  described  by  Mabillon  in 
his  "  Annales  Ordinis  Benedictini "  (1/03-39),  is  not 
extant.  Nor  is  the  engraved  silver  gilt  case  or  coffer 
which  originally  enclosed  the  celebrated  Book  of 
Hours  of  Charlemagne.  It  is,  by  the  way,  im- 
properly called  a  Book  of  Hours,  as  it  is  composed 
of  extracts  from  the  Gospels  applicable  to  every 
day  in  the  year.  The  calligraphist  Gottschalk 
(Godefalcus)  labored  for  twelve  years  in  its  execu- 
tion. It  was  terminated  in  781,  and  presented  by 
the  Emperor  to  the  abbey  of  St.  Sernin,  the  most 
ancient  monastery  of  Toulouse.  The  book  is  extant 
in  the  library  of  the  Louvre.  It  was  presented  to 
Napoleon  I.  by  the  city  of  Toulouse ;  but  the  casket 
was  stolen  in  1793  from  the  abbey  of  St.  Sernin. 
The  custom  of  enclosing  valuable  bindings  in  valuable 
caskets  was  a  prevailing  one,  but  the  caskets  have 
been  prizes  for  pillagers,  and  assuredly  could  not 
have  been  of  greater  interest  to  the  book-lover  than 
the  "  carved  oak  box  (in  book  form),  with  Milton's 
initials  on  the  side,  manufactured  from  the  old  timber 
taken  from  the  poet's  residence  in  Barbican  when 
demolished  in  1864,  with  a  certificate  of  authen- 
ticity, enclosing  a  work  of  Frischlini,  with  John 


12 


HISTORICAL   ESSAY. 


Milton's  autograph   initials  on   the   title  page,"  of  a 
recent  English  catalogue. 

A  very  interesting  list  might  be  made  of  noted 
manuscripts,  the  bindings  of  which  have  been  stolen, 
and  of  stolen  manuscripts  the  bindings  of  which  are 
extant.  The  precious  volumes  which  were  jealously 
guarded  "  in  the  secret  jewel-house,"  with  the  awe- 
inspiring  relics,  were  purloined  as  well  as  the 
cathenare,  cathenizare  or  catenati,  the  chained  vol- 
umes of  the  monasteries. 


THE  CATENATI. 


HE  precaution  to  enchain  in  the  plainly 
furnished  library-room  of  the  hospitable 
monastery  a  prayer-book,  a  bible,  or  such 
a  valuable  book  of  reference  as  the  "  Tornafolium," 
bequeathed  in  the  eleventh  century  by  Archbishop 
Leger  to  his  cathedral,  appears  to  have  been  of  as 
little  effect  as  the  innumerable  papal  sentences  of 
excommunication  of  the  time-honored  biblioklept. 

Rene  Boulange  in  the  "  Journal  de  la  Librairie," 
and  he  and  the  Abbe  Valentin  Dufour  in  the  "  Bibli- 
ophile Frangais,"  have  written  some  interesting 
articles  on  that  ancient  custom  of  enchaining  books 
by  the  way  of  a  description  of  the  Hereford  Library. 
The  library  of  the  cathedral  of  Hereford  is  extant 
in  its  primitive  state.  It  contains  236  manuscripts, 


14  HISTORICAL   ESSAY  ON   THE 

the  most  ancient  of  which  is  a  copy  in  Anglo  Saxon 
of  the  four  Evangelists,  bequeathed  to  the  cathedral 
by  Athelstan,  the  last  Saxon  bishop  of  that  diocese 
(1012-1056).  The  2,000  volumes  of  the  library  are 
well  preserved.  Among  them  is  Wyckliffe's  Bible, 
luxuriously  bound;  Gerroni  "Opera,"  1494;  Hart- 
mani  "Chronicon,"  1493;  Higden's  "Polychronicon," 
with  additions  by  William  Caxton,  1495. 

Every  volume  is  attached  to  a  chain,  of  such  length 
that  the  volume  may  be  placed  on  a  desk  near  at 
hand,  provided  at  one  extremity  with  an  iron  ring 
for  the  insertion  of  a  rod,  closing  with  a  padlock  on 
either  side  of  the  bookcase.  It  is  on  the  model  of  all 
the  ancient  libraries  of  chained  books ;  but  the  excep- 
tional preservation  of  the  Hereford  library  is  explained 
by  the  rigid  rules  of  its  management;  and  also,  as 
the  Abbe  Dufour  aptly  insinuates,  by  the  fact  that 
Richard  de  Bury,  the  illustrious  author  of  the  "Philo- 
biblion,"  was  canon  of  Hereford.  The  custom  is  as 
old  as  the  fifth  century,  and  prevailed  until  the  last 
century,  as  there  is  a  record  of  the  gift  to  All  Saints 
Church  of  Hereford  of  Dr.  William  Brewster's  library 
of  catenati  in  1715;  although  that  is  possibly  as  excep- 
tional a  case  as  the  modern  one  of  a  chained  directory 
or  dictionary  in  a  public  place. 


ART  OF   BOOKBINDING.  15 

The  manuscripts  of  the  Abbey  of  Saint  Victor,  in 
1508,  were  attached  to  desks;  the  books  of  Notre 
Dame  of  Paris,  similarly  arranged,  were  designated  in 
numerical  order  in  the  first  catalogues.  The  custom 
was  probably  abandoned  shortly  after  the  invention 
of  printing,  as  the  catcnati  of  the  church  of  St.  Gratien 
of  Tours  were  a  curiosity  to  Lebrun  Desmarettes  in 
the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  scarcer  than  an  uncut 
Elsevier  is  in  France,  a  book  with  the  chain-mark  of 
the  original  catenatus. 

These  books  were  not  decorated  by  goldsmiths  and 
enamellers  with  precious  stones  and  "  flower  de  luce  of 
dyamounts,"  nor  covered  with  the  enamelled  plaques 
of  the  town  of  Limoges,  which  were  of  the  finest 
bindings  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  but 
they  were  of  as  great  luxury  of  solidity  :  thick  boards, 
leather-covered,  massive  ornaments,  heavy  metalled 
corners,  and  frequently  with  an  excavation  in  the 
interior  of  the  binding  for  the  reception  of  a  silver  cru- 
cifix, guarded  by  a  metal  door. 

An  estimate  of  the  weight  of  such  a  binding  may 
be  formed  without  reference  to  the  volume  of  the 
Epistles  of  Cicero,  now  in  the  Florence  Laurentian 
library;  Petrarch's  autograph  copy  of  the  work,  of 
such  ponderous  weight  that  it  severely  injured  his 


i6 


HISTORICAL   ESSAY. 


left  leg,  on  which  it  was  habitually  made  to  rest,  until 
the  threatened  necessity  of  its  amputation  compelled 
his  relinquishing  the  constant  reading  of  his  favorite 
author. 


OF    MOROCCO    LEATHER 
BINDING. 


HE  Arabs  were  assuredly  the  original  artistic 
bookbinders.  Copies  of  their  "  Moallakat " 
were  covered  with  various  colored  morocco, 
elaborately  tooled  and  stamped  in  exquisite  patterns, 
long  ere  the  pillagers  of  the  library  of  the  Caliphs  at 
Cairo  transformed — horresco  referens  / — into  shoes, 
the  most  valuable  bindings  of  that  library. 

The  Crusaders  brought  from  Constantinople,  Pales- 
tine and  Egypt  many  specimens  of  the  admirable 
bindings  in  morocco  and  silken  stuffs,  which,  because 
of  the  resemblance  of  the  covers  to  the  gay  plumage 
of  a  bird's  wing,  were  called  ales.  '*  They  were  copied 
by  Italian  bookbinders,  but  were  not  adopted  until 


1 8  HISTORICAL   ESSAY  ON   THE 

the  sixteenth  century.  The  precious  books  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were  confided  to 
goldsmiths,  enamellers  and  illuminators,  as  heretofore. 
We  have  many  details  of  their  workmanship  in  the 
inventories  of  the  libraries  of  Charles  VI.  of  France 
(T399)>  °f  tne  dukes  of  Burgundy,  and  of  the  dukes 
of  Orleans,  of  Chaucer's  royal  patron  Edward  III., 
whose  style  of  binding  may  be  imagined  from  the 
following  extracts  from  the  archives  of  the  British 
Museum : 

"To  Alice  Claver,  for  the  making  of  xvi  laces  and  xvi  tasshels  for 
the  garnyshing  of  divers  of  the  King's  books,  ijs.  viijV." 

"  To  Piers  Bauduyn,  Stacioner,  for  bynding,  gilding  and  dress- 
ing of  a  booke  called  Titus  Liuius,  xxs. ;  for  bynding,  gilding  and 
dressing  of  a  booke  called  Ffrossard,  xvjj. ;  for  bynding,  gilding 
and  dressing  of  a  booke  called  the  Bible,  xvjj-. ;  for  bynding,  gild- 
ing and  dressing  of  a  booke  called  le  Gouuernement  of  Kings  and 
Princes,  xvjj." 

In  the  inventory  of  Charles  VI.  are  missals  of 
silver  gilt  covers,  and  of  velvet  embroidered  with 
the  fleur-de-lys,  and  the  arms  of  France  enamelled  on 
the  silver  clasps.  Other  bindings  were  of  vellum, 
silk,  or  dressed  leather,  deer  skin,  fox  skin,  sheep 
skin,  calf  skin,  and  the  lamentable  goat  skin  (whence 
bougum),  and  hog*  skin,  of  which  the  irrepressible 
book-worm  is  particularly  fond. 


ART  OF   BOOKBINDING.  19 

Skelton  has  given  a  very  poetic  description  of  a 
missal  of  Henry  VIII. : 

With  that  of  the  boke  lozende  were  the  claspes, 
The  margin  was  illumined  al  with  golden  railcs, 

And  bice  empictured  with  grass-oppes  and  waspcs, 
With  butterflies,  and  fresh  pecocke  tailes, 
F.nglored  with  flowers,  and  slyme  snayles, 
Envyved  pictures  well  touched  and  quickely, 
It  would  have  made  a  man  hole  that  had  be  right  sickely, 

To  behold  how  it  was  garnished  and  bound, 
Encovered  over  with  gold  and  tissue  fine, 

The  clasps  and  bullions  were  worth  a  M  pouncle, 
With  belassis  and  carbuncles  the  border  did  shine, 
With  aiirum  mosaicum  every  other  line. 

Not  a  satisfactory  description  in  a  bibliographical 
point  of  view  ;  possibly  the  work  of  Edwards,  but  the 
"  bibliophile  Jacob "  is  of  the  opinion  that  it  was 
similar  to  the  bindings  which  King  Mathias  Corvinus 
of  Hungary  caused  to  be  executed  by  Italian  artists 
for  the  Buda  library,  composed  principally  of  illum- 
inated manuscripts  bound  in  colored  morocco,  orna- 
mented with  silver  bosses  and  clasps,  treasures  which 
were  destroyed  by  the  Turks  under  Soliman  II.,  in 
1526. 

A  book-a-bosom,  valiant  King,  Mathias  of  Hungary, 
the  prince  of  bibliophiles  !  but  as  there  are  few,  if  any, 


20 


HISTORICAL   ESSAY. 


specimens  extant  of  the  bindings  bearing  the  symbol 
suggested  by  the  Roman  etymon  of  his  name  :  a  crow 
with  a  ring  in  its  mouth ;  his  mantle  has  fallen  to 
Jean  Grolier. 


GROLIERII  ET  AMICORUM. 

EAN  GROLIER  was  born  at  Lyons  in  1479, 
and  died  at  Paris  in  1565.  His  title  to  fame 
rests  entirely  on  his  passion  for  beautiful 
books,  the  patient  investigations  of  M.  Le  Roux  de 
Lincy  disclosing  only  three  or  four  occasions  of  his 
emerging  from  comparative  obscurity:  In  1544,  in  a 
quarrel  with  the  boasting  Benvenuto  de  Cellini,  who 
does  not  fail  to  record  in  his  Memoirs  his  closing  of  a 
discussion  with-  a  threat  to  throw  the  bibliophile  out 
of  the  window;  in  1558,  as  director  for  the  Marshal 
of  Montmorency  of  the  Chantilly  Art  Collections ;  in 
1559,  as  president  of  a  commission  instituted  by 
Henri  II.  for  the  recoinage  of  moneys;  in  1561,  in  a 
suit  for  peculation,  which  resulted  in  his  acquittal.- 
Portio  mea,  Domine,  sit  in  terra  viventium,  is  the 


22  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

invocation  traced  on  his  books,  and  it  was  probably 
accorded. 

The  friendly  intimacy  that  existed  between  Aldus 
Manucius  and  Grolier,  while  the  latter  was  treasurer 
for  the  Duchy  of  Milan  (about  1510),  animated,  if  it 
did  not  originally  promote,  Grolier's  appreciation  of 
"  the  art  preservative." 

He  was  a  member  of  the  little  academy  which  held 
its  meetings  at  the  learned  printer's  house,  apparently 
of  a  size  to  contain  none  but  true  friends,  as  a  real- 
ization of  the  ideal  of  Socrates..  There  he  met  as 
colleagues  Navagero,  Marino  Sanudo,  the  Greek 
Musurus,  Giovanni  Giocondo,  Erasmus,  poets,  artists 
and  savants. 

In  1518  Grolier  was  a  celebrated  collector  of  books, 
and  Erasmus  prophesied  that  they  would  make  him 
great.  There  were,  says  La  Caille,  three  thousand 
volumes  in  his  library,  which  remained  intact  for  one 
hundred  and  ten  years  in  the  hotel  de  Vic.  They 
were  sold  at  auction  in  1676,  after  the  death  of 
Dominique  de  Vic.  The  original  buyers  are  not 
known,  and  three  hundred  and  fifty  volumes  only 
have*  been  found  extant  by  M.  Le  Roux  de  Lincy. 

There  were  many  of  the  finest  editions  of  the  Al- 
dine  press,  many  in  duplicate  and  in  triplicate  copies, 


ART   OF    BOOKBINDING.  23 

a  circumstance  which,  in  the  opinion  of  his  biographer, 
explains  and  justifies  the  singular  device  of  his  vol- 
umes: lo  Grolicrii  ct  Amicorum — and  all  were  bound 
in  Levant  morocco,  embellished  with  varied  designs 
and  ornaments  of  the  most  exquisite  patterns.  A 
distinguishing  feature  of  these  was  the  interlacing 
with  geometrical  accuracy  of  boldly  traced  gold  lines. 
Grolier  undoubtedly  led  the  art  of  bookbinding,  justi- 
fying the  opinionated  expression  of  the  Comte  de 
Laborde :  "  Bookbinding  is  an  art  all  French."  It 
is  a  moot  point  with  bibliographers  as  to  the  binding 
of  Grolier's  volumes,  whether  they  were  executed 
at  Paris  or  at  Lyons.  The  relentless  Mr.  Fournier, 
inferring  from  an  allusion  in  Bonaventure  des  Perier's 
"Cymbalum  Mundi,"  that  the  best  bindings  were 
made  in  Paris,  while  the  no  less  learned  "  bibliophile 
Jacob "  (P.  Lacroix)  gives  the  palm  to  Lyons,  the 
birth-place  of  Grolier,  and  the  favorite  city  of  Bona- 
venture des  Periers.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Grolier  had 
unconsciously  founded  a  school  of  the  art  of  book- 
binding, and  it  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  the 
excellent  works  with  which  it  enriched  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries.  Of  these  are  the  elegant 
bindings  of  Francis  I.,  stamped  with  the  emblematical 
salamander ;  and  of  Henry  II.  and  his  mistress,  Diana 


24  HISTORICAL  ESSAY. 

of  Poitiers,  to  whom  is  due  the  edict  providing  that  a 
copy  on  vellum,  handsomely  bound,  of  every  book 
printed  in  France  should  be  deposited  in  the  library 
of  the  King.  Her  books  were  stamped  with  mytho- 
logical emblems  and  crescents,  sometimes  united  in  a 
monogram  with  the  King's  initial  and  the  royal  coat- 
of-arms. 


JACQUES  AUGUSTE  DE  THOU. 

N  the   annals  of  bibliophilic  fame  Grolier  is 
first  and  De  Thou  is  second.     The  classic 
author  of  the  "  J.  A.  Thuani  Historiarum 
sui  temporis,"  "that  grand  and  faithful  history,"  says 
Bossuet,  was  destined  to  greater  fame  as  a  collector 
of  books  than  as  an  enlightened  jurist  and  historian. 

His  predilection  for  fine  books  in  superb  covers 
was  probably  incited  by  his  early  admiration  for  the 
four  books  which  Grolier  presented  to  his  father — 
Christophe  De  Thou — perhaps  in  recognition  of  valu- 
able service  as  president  of  the  commission  in  the 
suit  for  peculation, 'which  resulted  in  Grolier's  acquittal 
and  vindication.  Of  these  four  books  was  the  famous 
"Translation  of  Hippocrates,"  by  Calvus  (Rome,  1525), 
one  of  the  finest  Grolier  bindings  known,  bequeathed 


26  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

by  Motteley  to  Napoleon  III.  in  1850,  and  burned  in 
1871  in  the  library  of  the  Louvre. 

It  is  to  De  Thou  that  is  due  the  preservation  in 
France  of  the  collection  of  manuscripts  of  Catherine 
de  Medicis,  who  has  been  classed  among  illustrious 
wholesale  biblioklepts  for  her  appropriation  of  Marshal 
Strozzi's  library.  De  Thou  was  at  the  time  the  col- 
lection was  offered  for  sale,  in  1594,  Librarian  of  the 
Royal  Library,  in  place  of  Jacques  Amyot,  and  he 
obtained  injunctions  restraining  the  Abbe  de  Belle- 
branche  from  disposing  of  the  collection,  until  after 
several  suits  it  became,  in  1599,  part  of  the  royal 
collections. 

De  Thou  has  shared  with  Catherine  de  Medicis  the 
time-honored  distinction  of  a  biblioklept,  becomingly 
appreciated  by  Disraeli  the  Elder  in  the  expression  of 
an  opinion  on  Bishop  More's  collection  of  a  library 
"  by  plundering  those  of  the  clergy  of  his  diocese  " 
(according  to  Gough),  that  "  this  plundering  consisted 
in  cajoling  others  out  of  what  they  knew  not  how  to 
value,  an  advantage  which  every  skillful  lover  of  books 
must  enjoy  over  those  whose  apprenticeship  has  not 
yet  expired." 

De  Thou's  collections  were  like  Grolier's,  made 
principally  in  Italy,  and  it  is  estimated  that  at  his 


ART   OF   BOOKBINDING.  2/ 

death  his  library  comprised  some  eight  thousand 
volumes  admirably  bound  in  calf,  vellum,  and  green, 
orange  and  red  morocco,  stamped  with  the  various 
escutcheons  described  by  Ap.  Briquet  in  the  "  Bul- 
letin du  Bibliophile"  of  1860,  and  by  Joannis  Guigard 
in  the  "  Armorial  du  Bibliophile." 

To  De  Thou's  folio  copy  of  the  "  Historia  Piscium" 
of  Salvianus,  purchased  at  the  Edwards  sale  for  the 
Fonthill  collection,  has  been  accorded  the  palm  of 
superior  merit  of  all  books  of  that  age  now  extant. 
De  Thou's  binders  had  profited  by  the  example  of 
Grolier's,  and  in  their  hands  the  art  of  binding  in 
morocco  seemed  to  have  attained  perfection. 


OF  BOOKBINDERS. 


HAT  monks  were  anciently  the  binders  as  well 
as  the  makers  of  books  is  proven  by  docu- 
mentary evidence.  Hearne  has  published  a 
grant  from  Rich,  de  Paston  to  the  Bromholm  abbey 
"  of  twelve  pence  a  year  rent  charge  on  his  estates  to 
keep  their  books  in  repair;"  Charlemagne  conferred 
a  diploma  unto  the  abbot  of  Saint  Bertin,  a  privilege 
to  procure  by  means  of  hunting  the  skins  necessary 
for  the  binding  of  the  books  of  his  abbey,  and  Dibdin 
quotes  from  a  manuscript  of  the  British  Museum : 
"  Sacrista  curet  quod  libri  bene  ligentur  et  haspentur" 
etc.  The  "  bibliophile  Jacob "  also  says  that  two 
monks,  Goderan  and  Ernesten,  of  the  monastery  of 
Stavelot,  in  Flanders,  completed  in  1097  two  vol- 
umes of  the  Bible,  with  the  following  inscription:  "In 


30  HISTORICAL   ESSAY  ON  THE 

omnia  sua  procuratione  y  hoc  est  Scriptura,  illumina- 
tione,  ligatura,  uno  eodemque  anno  perfecti  stint  ambo 
codices." 

Nor  did  Tritheim,  abbot  of  Spanheim,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  omit  bookbinding  in  an  enumera- 
tion of  the  various  employments  of  the  monks  of  his 
abbey. 

There  is  a  show  of  justice  in  the  modern  book  col- 
lector's expression  of  due  praise  to  the  binder  of  the 
magnificent  folio  or  shining  duodecimo,  made  to  sleep 
upon  an  eider-down  pillow,  but  it  will  not  atone  for 
centuries  of  ingratitude.  There  was  an  old  law  which 
compelled  bookbinders  to  take  oath  that  they  did  not 
know  how  to  read ;  and  the  magnificent  books  of 
Grolier  and  Maioli  and  De  Thou  come  to  us  without 
an  indication  of  the  name  of  the  artist,  who  is  ever  to 
remain  in  obscurity.  The  Marquis  de  Lavalette's 
mistake  of  the  name  of  Grolier  for  the  name  of  a 
bookbinder  was  not  an  unnatural  one,  and  should  not 
have  been  considered  by  such  an  ardent  bibliophile 
as  Clement  de  Ris  solely  in  the  light  of  evidence  of 
the  distinguished  minister's  ignorance  of  the  history 
of  bibliomania. 

The  publishers  of  the  first  printed  volumes  were 
bookbinders  also,  and  the  names  of  Johannas  Guile- 


ART   OF   BOOKBINDING.  31 

bert,  Johan  Norris  and  Ludovis  Bloc,  impressed  by  a 
momentary  vanity  on  the  covers  of  a  work,  are  the 
earliest  of  bookbinders  of  the  sixteenth  century  that 
are  known.  A  bookbinder  by  the  name  of  Pigorreau 
appears  to  have  been  the  first  workman  to  ply  his 
vocation  independently  of  the  publishers,  in  1620. 
The  Eve  family,  invested  with  the  title  of  "  Book- 
binders to  the  King,"  for  fifty  years,  from  1578  to 
1627,  were  printers  and  publishers,  and  to  them  has 
been  attributed  the  bindings  of  De  Thou. 

Nicolas  Eve  is  cited  as  bookbinder  to  Henri 
III.;  Clovis  Eve  to  Henri  IV.  and  Louis  XIII.; 
Robert  Eve  inherited  his  father's  title ;  but  it  cannot 
be  said  with  absolute  certainty  that  either  of  them 
executed  the  works  which  have  made  their  name 
famous. 

The  history  of  modern  bookbinding  is  not  therefore 
to  be  identified  with  the  name  of  a  bookbinder  pre- 
viously to  the  year  1641,  when  flourished  Le  Gascon, 
to  whom  Jerome  Pinchon  has  attributed  the  bindings 
of  the  library  of  De  Thou's  sons.  Le  Gascon  is  only 
a  surname,  and  the  real  name  of  the  artist  is  as 
unknown  as  his  history,  but  his  binding  of  "  La 
Guirlande  de  Julie"  is  ever  to  remain  a  model.  A 
competent  critic,  Feydau,  has  said  that  as  a  gilder 


32  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

Le  Gascon  attained  perfection,  and  that  he  possessed 
a  secret  process  of  gilding  which  has  not  yet  been 
discovered. 

Le  Gascon's  immediate  successors  were  Boyet  or 
Boyer,  and  Du  Seuil  or  Duseuil,  whose  name  Lesne, 
the  bookbinder  poet,  has  written  Desseuil,  as  he  logi- 
cally but  improperly  misspelt  Pasdeloup  for  Padeloup, 
to  the  confusion  of  bibliographers. 

The  work  of  Le  Gascon  is  greatly  superior  to  that 
of  his  successors.  Louis  XIV.  was  not  an  amateur 
of  beautiful  books,  a  defect  which  was  not  to  be  reme- 
died by  the  edict  of  1686,  which  liberated  bookbind- 
ers from  the  dictatorship  of  printers  and  publishers, 
nor  by  the  treaties  with  the  Ottoman  Empire,  which 
stipulated  an  indemnity  of  morocco  skins  for  the  cov- 
ers of  the  books  of  the  royal  library,  possibly  in  emu- 
lation of  Charles  V.  of  Spain's  request  from  Cosmo  de 
Medicis  of  a  superb  copy  of  Titus  Livius  as  a  token  of 
conciliation. 

From  the  time  of  the  Roi  Soleil  the  art  of  book- 
binding declined  gradually.  Derome  and  Padeloup 
were  great  artists  assuredly,  but  at  a  long  distance 
from  their  predecessors. 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  Bozerian  is 
the  unworthy  representative  of  the  art  in  'France, 


ART   OF   BOOKBINDING.  33 

while  in  England  it  has  progressed  steadily  from  the 
Harleian  era  to  Roger  Payne.  Theirs  was  not  a 
servile  imitation  of  ancient  work,  although  Mr.  Roscoe 
wrote  eloquently  in  commendation  of  ancient  binding 
in  his  "Lorenzo  de  Medici."  "A  taste  for  the  exte- 
rior decoration  of  books  has  lately  arisen  in  this 
country,  in  the'gratification  of  which  no  small  share 
of  ingenuity  has  been  displayed ;  but  if  we  are  to 
judge  of  the  present  predilection  for  learning  by  the 
degree  of  expense  thus  incurred  we  must  consider  it 
as  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  the  Romans  during  the 
time  of  the  first  emperors  or  of  the  Italians  at  the 
fifteenth  century.  And  yet  it  is  difficult  to  discover 
why  a  favorite  book  should  not  be  as  proper  an 
object  of  elegant  ornament  as  the  head  of  a  cane,  the 
hilt  of  a  sword  or  the  latchet  of  a  shoe." 

Wisely  and  truly  said,  but  for  the  consideration 
that  the  invention  of  printing  was  of  that  inferiority 
the  causa  causans,  the  manuscripts  that  were  "all 
wrought  in  gold."  being 'masterpieces  of  handicraft  in 
themselves. 

The  prejudice  in  favor  of  ancient  binding  was  dis- 
played as  recently  as  in  the  report  of  the  International 
Bookbinding  Exhibition  of  1857,  wherein  the  judges — 
Merlin,  Cape  and  Bauzonnet — expressed  the  opinion 


34  HISTORICAL   ESSAY   ON   THE 

advanced  by  Roscoe.  They  went  further  than  this 
in  their  extollation  of  the  masters  of  the  three  pre- 
ceding centuries,  especially  of  those  whom,  as  Dibdin 
would  say,  St.  Jerome  or  St.  Austin  would  have 
lashed  for  the  gorgeous  decoration  of  their  volumes. 
It  was  of  special  interest  to  American  bibliophiles 
that  Holland,  once  famous  for  its  bindings  of  vellum ; 
Germany,  whose  gilders  had  been  constantly  em- 
ployed by  the  binders  of  France,  Spain  and  Italy, 
exhibited  nothing  but  imitations  of  the  declined 
French  art.  The  rivalry,  which  should  have  been 
universal,  existed  between  France  and  England  only. 
France  excelled  in  taste  and  finish,  but  at  some 
sacrifice  of  flexibility ;  while  in  England  the  soft  and 
coaxing  manner  in  which,  by  the  skill  of  Hering  or 
Mackinlay,  "leaf  succeeds  to  leaf,"  was  marred  by 
the  tarnishing  of  the  once  blazing  gilt  edges.  It  was 
of  interest  to  American  bibliophiles,  as  an  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  the  decline  of  the  art  of  bookbinding 
was  due  to  the  apathy  of  the  book  collectors.  Artists 
found  no  occasion  for  reference  to  the  compilation  of. 
"  Messire  Francisque,  pelegrin  de  Florence,"  com- 
posed of  designs  of  foliage,  interlacing  ornaments  and 
moresque  patterns,  nor  for  innovation  or  improve- 
ment in  their  work,  because  the  book  collectors  sug- 


ART   OF    BOOKBINDING,  35 

gested  nothing.  And  as  the  art  of  bookbinding  owed 
its  existence  to  them,  and  to  them  only,  they  were 
responsible  for  its  decadence.  Obviously,  it  was  not 
an  art  to  be  restricted  to  one  nation  or  to  one  family, 
as  tradition  would  have  it  in  France,  and  forthwith  did 
Bradstreet's,  of  New  York,  undertake  to  make  it 
American  also ;  and  now,  if  the  rallied  book  collec- 
tors of  the  Old  World  point  with  pride  to  Trautz- 
Bauzonnet,  Lortic,  Marius  Michel,  Hardy,  Amand, 
Bedford,  Smeers,  Riviere  and  Zaehnsdorf,  the  New 
World  may  retort  with  Matthews  and  Bradstreet's. 
And  deservedly,  because  there  is  a  solidity,  strength 
and  squareness  of  workmanship  about  the  books  of 
The  Bradstreet  bindery  which  seem  to  convince  that 
they  may  be  "tossed  from  the  summit  of  Snowdon  to 
that  of  Cader  Idris,"  without  detriment  or  serious 
injury.  Certainly,  none  can  put  a  varied  colored 
morocco  coat  on  a  book,  and  gild  it  with  greater 
perfection  in  choice  of  ornament  and  splendor  of 
gold,  and  with  greater  care,  taste  and  success,  than 
Bradstreet's.  The  experienced  book  collector  will 
appreciate  this  de  visu ;  the  uninitiated  should  be 
made  aware  of  the  qualities  that  constitute  perfection 
in  bookbinding,  the  combination  of  solidity  with 
elegance.  The  volume  should  open  easily,  and  re- 


36  HISTORICAL  ESSAY   ON   THE 

main  open  at  any  page,  the  back  flexible  and  the 
leaves  evenly  cut.  The  gilding  and  other  ornaments 
may  be  left  to  the  artist,  but  the  inscription  of  the 
title  is  a  very  serious  matter,  as  found  to  his  dis- 
comfiture the  owner  of  a  work  of  Lucian,  translated 
by  a  M.  Belin  de  Balu,  which  the  great  Bozerian 
lettered:  "Lucien  T.  P.  Belin  de  Balu."  T.  ?.=traduit 
par.  Not  less  unfortunate  was  the  bibliophile  whose 
uncut,  scarce  edition  of  the  works  of  Brantome,  con- 
fided to  an  artistic  but  dreadfully  provincial  book- 
binder, was  returned  with  the  leaves  scrupulously 
cut,  and  the  volumes  inscribed :  Bran  Tome  I.,  Bran 
Tome  II.,  Bran  Tome  III.,  and  so  on  to  the  ninth 
volume.  And  Dibdin  relates,  among  anecdotes  of 
barbarous  titles  applied  to  precious  works,  the  dis- 
covery by  a  well-educated  bibliomaniac  of  the  first 
and  almost  unknown  edition  of  the  "  Decameron " 
of  Boccaccio,  in  a  volume  entitled  "  Concilium 
Tridenti." 

As  to  the  expression  of  the  binding  of  a  book,  it 
should  be  sad  or  gay,  sombre  or  brilliant,  in  accord 
with  its  spirit,  its  tone  and  its  epoch,  as  is  suggested 
by  Hartley  Coleridge.  Didot  even  insisted  upon  a 
refinement  in  the  matter  of  color,  advising  chromo 
bibliotacts,  as  they  are  aptly  styled  by  Uzanne,  to 


ART  OF  BOOKBINDING.  37 

clothe  their  works  on  theology  in  purple,  astronomy 
in  azure,  and  travels  in  marine  blue,  presumably  in 
accordance  with  the  good  and  very  appropriate 
metaphor  of  the  inscription  on  a  King  of  Egypt's 
bookcase :  "  Treasure  of  the  Remedies  of  the  Soul," 
books  being,  like  drugs,  to  be  taken  with  discretion 
and  in  various  doses,  and  their  outward  appearance  to 
denote  the  nature  of  the  remedy  they  contain,  in 
order  that  those  that  are  poison  be  not  mistaken  for 
their  antidotes. 

In  his  attractive  little  book  on  "The  Home 
Library,"  Mr.  Arthur  Penn  says  justly  that  "it 
is  well  also  not  to  begrudge  money  for  a  fine 
piece  of  work ;  "  but  how  very  few  appreciate  the 
fact  who  are  otherwise  prodigal  in  their  admiration 
of  the  fine  arts.  It  would  be  interesting  to  look  into 
the  comparative  value  of  fine  binding  in  different 
centuries. 

The  work  of  the  ancients  was  painstaking  in  the 
extreme;  the  time  that  it  took  scarcely  less  than  the 
writing  and  illuminating  of  a  missal;  but  their  for- 
warding was  not  as  good  as  is  that  of  modern  book- 
binders. This  desideratum  is  noticeably  appreciated 
by  the  artists  of  the  United  States,  wherefore  the 
American  bibliophiles  entrust  to  them  the  work  that 


38  HISTORICAL   ESSAY  ON   THE 

they  were  wont  to  send  to  European  bookbinders, 
in  spite  of  the  most  vexatious  delays.  Assuredly, 
fostered  and  encouraged,  American  bookbinders  are 
to  attain  the  highest  niche  in  the  temple. 

A  writer  in  the  "  Miscellanees  Bibliographiques," 
Jean  Poche,  has  given  a  copy  of  an  account  of  the 
binder  Duseuil,  in  which  twelve  volumes  of  the 
second  tome  of  the  Manuscripts  of  the  Library  of 
the  King,  bound  in  morocco,  with  gold  filigree  and 
the  royal  cbat-of-arms,  are  quoted  at  30  livres  each, 
and  the  writer  of  the  article  adds  a  note  to  the  effect 
that  the  director  of  the  Imprimerie  Royale  reduced 
the  price  to  25  francs. 

The  French  bibliophiles  were  slow  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  Grolier's  bindings.  In  1725  the  highest 
price  paid  for  them  by  the  Count  d'Hoym  was 
7  livres  10  sous;  in  1815,  at  the  MacCarthy  Reagh 
sale,  75  francs  was  considered  an  exorbitant  price. 
In  England  in  1810  the  famous  London  bookseller, 
James  Edwards,  found  a  ready  sale  for  them  at  1,000 
francs,  and  wrote  to  Renouard  that  he  would  be  glad  to 
buy  all  volumes  of  the  Aldine  press,  with  the  binding 
and  the  name  of  Grolier,  at  I  louis  a  volume.  Grolier's 
copy  of  the  "  Philostrati  Vita  Apollinii  Tyanei  et 
Eusebius  contra  Hierocleni,"  which  at  the  McCarthy 


ART   OF   BOOKBINDING. 


39 


sale  brought  255  francs,  and  at  the  Hibbert  sale 
(i^-9)  £^i,  was  bought  at  the  Beckford  sale  for 
^"300  by  Quaritch. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


ERU  SAL.     Cypriani.     Programma  Selecta.     (Cob.,  1708.     8vo.) 
H.    GERAUD.     Essai   sur  les  livres  dans  1'antiquite".     (Paris,    1839. 

8vo.) 
GAB.  PEIGNOT.     Essai  historique  et  arche"ologique  sur  la  reliure  des 

livres  et  sur  l'e"tat  de  la  librairie  chez  les  anciens.     (Dijon,  1834. 

8vo.) 
CAPPERONNIER  DE  GAUFFECOURT.     Traite"  de  la  Reliure  des  livres. 

(No  date.     Lyons,  1763.) 
DUDIN.       L'art    du    relieur-doreur    de    livres.      Nouvelle    Edition. 

(Paris,  1819.) 
LESNE.      La   Reliure,    poeme   didactique   du   six   chants.      Seconde 

edition.     (Paris,  1827.) 
DIBDIN  (T.   F.)     The  Bibliographical  Decameron.     (London,  1817. 

3  vols.,  large  8vo.) 
FOURNIER  (Ed.)     L'  Art  de  la  Reliure  en  France  aux  derniers  Siecles. 

(Paris,  1864.     8vo.) 
P.  L.  JACOB,  Bibliophile  (Paul  Lacroix).     Curiosite's   de  PHistoire 

des  Arts.     (Paris,  1858.) 
L.   CLEMENT  DE   Ris.     Les   Amateurs   d'Autrefois.     (Paris,    1877. 

8vo.) 


42  HISTORICAL   ESSAY. 

J.  W.  'ZAEHNSDORF.     The  Art  of  Bookbinding.     (London,  1880.) 
MARIUS  MICHEL.     LA  Reliure  Franchise,  depuis  1'invention  de  1'im- 

primerie  jusqu'a  la  fin  du  dix-huitieme  siecle.     (Paris,  1880.) 
La  Reliure  Ancienne  et  Moderne,  Recueil  de  116  Planches.     Introduc- 
tion par  Gustave  Brunei.     (Paris,  1878.     2  vols.) 
OCTAVE  UZANNE.     Les  Caprices  d'un  Bibliophile.     (Paris,  1880.) 
Bulletin   du   Bibliophile,    Public   par  J.    Techener.      Notably:    Ch. 
Nodier,  De  la  Reliure  en  France  au  dix-neuvieme  siecle.     Tome  I. 
(1834.)     P.  L.  Jacob,  Essai  historique  sur  la  Reliure  en  France 
depuis   le    seizieme    siecle.      Tome   V.    (1863.)      Ap.    Briquet. 
Notes  sur  la  Bibliotheque  et  les  Armoiries  de  J.  Aug  de  Thou. 
Tome  II.     (186.0.) 

Le  Bibliophile  Fran£ais.     Notably:   Ren£   Boulange',  Les  Anciennes 
Bibliotheques  Enchaine~es  d' Hereford.    Tome  III.    (Paris,  1869.) 
L'Abbe   Valentin   Dufour.      Recherches    Historiques   et   Biblio- 
graphiques  sur  les  Livres  Enchaines.     Tome  V.     (1870.) 
North  American  Review.     Bibliopegia,  vol.  79.     (1854.) 
Le  Livre.     Notably :  Joannis  Guigard.     La  Reliure  Illustr£e  Nouvel 
Armorial  du  Bibliophile.     Tome  I.     (1880.) 


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